This week we learned about the newest ways Apple will take our money, why some people definitely should not own guns and why baseball games are a bit dangerous.
What We Learned This Week
Saturday, September 13, 2014
What We Learned This Week
What Content Earns You The Most Engagement on Facebook? Question of the Week
Are you spending a lot of time and effort to carefully curate content to post on your Facebook page only to find that most (if not all) of your posts are falling flat when it comes to likes, comments and shares? You are most definitely not alone. Since we first realized that Facebook Pages’ organic reach was on a downward spiral, social media managers have been in a bit of a panic trying to see the numbers that they were seeing in years past.
For Facebook users, this means there will be much higher-quality posts and engaging content rising to the top of our News Feeds. But for businesses that can’t afford to spend their hard-earned cash on promoting each and every post, things might be a bit more difficult.
Last week, we asked our followers, What content earns the most likes, comments and shares on your Facebook page? The outpouring of answers was incredibly interesting. It seems like the type of content that performs well on your Facebook pages has changed substantially in the past few years. While the social network itself continues to grow, the type of content we are producing needs to adapt along with it. So what type of content is earning you the most engagement? Let’s take a look at your answers.
@hootsuite on @YoonekConcepts we’ve been having huge Facebook success with either funny or original pics that speak to the local community
— Abel Nunez (@AB3LNUN3Z) September 8, 2014
@hootsuite photos!!
— Young-Williams AC (@YWACpets) September 6, 2014
Many of our followers agreed that their most engaging content on Facebook are images, and there are, in fact, statistics to back them up.
According to Wishpond, a photo on Facebook is going to get you (on average) 120% more engagement than a post without. Photo posts on Facebook receive 53% more likes than the average post, and 104% more comments. This is absolutely something you should keep in mind when it comes to scheduling your next Facebook post.
@hootsuite something that we can share common interest.. Something emotional
— DEVIKA BARUA (@divinedevika) September 7, 2014
@hootsuite Stories of adversity turned to hope. Or death of course.
— Joy (@MarianneMohr) September 7, 2014
We all love to see emotional stories of people overcoming adversity on Facebook. Not only do they inspire us to do better for ourselves, but it is heartwarming to see how hope and courage can change a person’s life. Sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed have become masters of pulling people into their heartwarming content with extremely appealing social messaging.
The key on Facebook is to find ways to capture your audience’s attention by sparking their curiosity and then actually meeting their expectations with great content. How could content like that not go viral?
big butts “@hootsuite: What content earns the most likes, comments and shares on your Facebook page?”
— Treasure Fingers (@treasurefingers) September 7, 2014
Big butts? You couldn’t be more right, just ask Nicki Minaj. Sex does sell.
Do you have an opinion on which type of content earns you the most engagement on Facebook? Join the conversation and let us know what you think in the comments below!
The post What Content Earns You The Most Engagement on Facebook? Question of the Week appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.
What Content Earns You The Most Engagement on Facebook? Question of the Week
Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review
Push does come to shove — and improves sales — if internet retailers are right. Nine out of the 10 top e-retailers in the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 make use of push notifications to market content to consumers.
SMS spammers are every bit as irritating as they are plentiful. And Jared Reitzin, the CEO of mobileStorm, is fed up with it.
If you’ve already written off Microsoft in the smartphone wars, it may be time to write them back in. The updated Enterprise Smartphone Competitive Assessment from ABI Research concludes that, overall, Apple is number one followed closely by Samsung.
A new study is confirming that which many mobile marketers already know — moms are excellent, receptive targets for relevant mobile marketing messages. The findings published this week from the 2014 BabyCenter US Mobile Mom Report show that moms are dependent like never before on their mobile devices for communication, research, and shopping.
Consumers now leapfrog from one device to another throughout a typical day. From a home laptop to a smartphone on the train to a tablet later on — yes, it has been a challenge for marketers trying to figure out how to track them across all platforms.
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Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review
What We Learned This Week
This week we learned about the newest ways Apple will take our money, why some people definitely should not own guns and why baseball games are a bit dangerous.
What We Learned This Week
Twitter Buy Button: This Week in Social Media
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What’s New This Week? Twitter Tests New Way to Make a Purchase on Twitter: “For a small percentage of U.S. users (that [...]
This post Twitter Buy Button: This Week in Social Media first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Examiner - Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
Twitter Buy Button: This Week in Social Media
A 512GB SD Card Has More Storage Than Your Computer
You can now get an SD card with more storage than your average PC.
SanDisk announced the Extreme Pro SDXC card (UHS-1) on Friday, the world's first SD card with room for 512 gigabytes of data — more than a half a terabyte of storage. To put that into perspective, 128GB is starting capacity for most Ultrabooks and the MacBook Air, and 256GB is common for most PC solid-state disk (SSD) drives today.
The 512GB card is rated for 4K video capture and able to write all the data needed to store ultra-high-res footage in real time. Photographers will also like its ability to keep pace with high-speed burst photography. Read more...
More about Mobile, Storage, Sandisk, Tech, and Sd Card
A 512GB SD Card Has More Storage Than Your Computer
The 'Star Wars' Galaxy Is So Much Sweeter With Sesame Street
In a cookies and milk galaxy far, far away, all the Star Wars characters you know and love are sweeter — and edible! — Sesame Street characters.
Among the gluttonous crew: Princess Leia (Princess Parfait-a), Luke Skywalker (Luke Pie-walker), and Han Solo (Flan Solo)
Naturally, Flan Solo is played by Cookie Monster, and he's probably going to have a nibble at Princess Parfait-a's hair made of Oreo cookies
The wordplay in Star S'Mores are as infinite as the galaxy itself
Video: YouTube, Sesame Street
The 'Star Wars' Galaxy Is So Much Sweeter With Sesame Street
Eastern European Gangs Make More Money Selling Black Market Shellfish Than Drugs
Divers working for organized crime gangs are using the banned practice of electro-fishing — where sea creatures are electronically stunned — to bring in hauls of worth up to $100,000 daily.
Eastern European Gangs Make More Money Selling Black Market Shellfish Than Drugs
Best of 2013: Responsive design, content marketing, conversion paths & more
2013. Google called it "a year of transformation." Mashable declared it "the year of responsive web design." And then there was Google Enhanced Campaigns, which was mandated across all AdWords campaigns back in July. If you weren't ready for mobile, well, it didn't matter, because it happened.
With smartphone sales expected to reach 1.81 billion...and double by 2015...compelling, intelligent, and integrated digital campaigns, and thus experiences, will be mandatory.
Not optional.
We've been preaching brilliant post-click marketing since 2007. But this year, highly relevant, smart, user-centered creative really took a front seat that will carry through 2014 and beyond.
So, to wrap up the year with a nice bow, we wanted to share our "Best of 2013" — a collection of blog posts designed to inspire better digital experiences and help you provide more value (and conversions) in the new year.
Cheers!
Jessica
9 Best Practices for Designing Responsive Landing Pages
Nine of our favorite best practices for designing stellar responsive landing pages. You can use these with or without a platform to ensure you are building landing pages that not only respond, but convert! Learn how to put the right content in the right place on the page for every user.
How to use conversion paths for a better digital experience
Humans click your ads and land on your pages. Seems obvious, but in our haste to put up an experience with the perfect layout, content & offer, we often forget to think about the human behind the click. Learn how to use user segmentation (aka conversion paths) for a better digital experience.
9 Ways to Drive More Leads From Your Content Marketing
Sure, you've used landing pages to 'gate' high value content such as white papers or ebooks, but there more creative ways to up-sell and cross-sell content to convert your audience's attention into business results. Discover nine ideas for innovative ways to drive more leads from your content marketing.
Three awesome [infographics]
Content marketing, landing pages and testing...these are three of our favorite things! Download these infographics.
Happy Holidays from ion!
Read our 2013 holiday blog post series — ionians cover best practices for testing, responsive design, user segmentation, marketing apps & more! Read the series.
Best of 2013: Responsive design, content marketing, conversion paths & more
How to Develop Rapport With Influencers via Social Media
The influencers in your niche are probably receiving hundreds of friendly requests a day. The trick behind successful outreach is to stand out and catch the intended party's attention--and maintain it. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
How to Develop Rapport With Influencers via Social Media
What Facebook's Evolving Social Graph Means for Content Marketers
As Facebook's concept of the social graph evolves, it presents new opportunities for content marketing on Facebook. Here's a look at some of those opportunities.
Read the full article at MarketingProfs
What Facebook's Evolving Social Graph Means for Content Marketers
13 Food Bloggers Share Their Best Advice For Newbies
Food is one of the most popular blogging topics. In this post thirteen popular food bloggers share their best tips, advice and stories for newbies who want to enter the field. First a quick introduction to our foodies:
- Deeba Rajpal (DR): The author of Passionate About Baking.
- Lori Popkewitz Alper (LP): Groovy Green Livin inspires readers to live a healthier, greener and more sustainable lifestyle.
- Dori Story (DO) is a very passionate writer at Riches to Rags.
- Peef and Lo (PL) are two food lovers from Milwaukee writing about seasonal cooking and local eating.
- Debi Wayland (DW) is a food blogger at Life Currents.
- Michael Natkin (MN): Herbivoracious presents vegetarian cuisine through flavored recipes, techniques and mouth-watering images.
- Christine Chitnis (CC): Rural life, farmers markets, art events, good food, crafts and photography are some of her favourite topics.
- Anne-Marie Nichols (AM): This Mama Cooks! On a Diet where she inspire families to live healthier with a minimum of fuss.
- Sophia Breene (SN): Greatist is focused on health and fitness advice for “young, savvy and social”.
- Catherine McCord (CM): Weelicious features a prominent search bar that gives easy access to recipes tailored to family needs.
- Jenny McGruther (JM): Nourished Kitchen promotes sustainable agriculture and nutrient-dense, whole foods in everyday kitchens.
- Kiersten Frase (KO): Oh My Veggies is a vegetarian food blog with focus on easy recipes.
- Sarah Zinkel (SZ): She shares her experiences on how to balance healthy living with a grad school and a newlywed life.
- Thanks to Daniela from Food Recipes HQ for doing the interviews.
How and why did you start?
DR: Armed with a new digital camera, I began blogging in 2007 in an attempt to record recipes I was trying at home. At the time, it was just a personal site, something I was too intimidated to share. A handful of beautiful food sites were my constant source of inspiration.
LP: My passion for natural, non-toxic living began after seeing first hand how living an organic, non-toxic lifestyle can directly affect your health and well being. I began sharing information with my family and friends. I decided to learn everything I could about blogging and what it meant to have an online presence. I started off knowing nothing. I took a leap of faith and decided to trade in my day job as an attorney and dive head first into creating a site.
DO: I started my site at a time in my life where we had been going through a very difficult time for years. I was depressed and my sister told me that I needed to find a passion and do something that I loved. I LOVED social media, cooking and food so I started the site and I have been doing it ever since.
PL: I’ve always had a passion for cooking and creating new recipes in the kitchen. I’ve always been passionate about writing. Blogging brought those two worlds together. We really didn’t expect that we’d have any readers beyond a few curious family and friends. But, as our readership started growing, I realized that there was a market for our story – and it opened up a whole new way to create community with not only local Milwaukee foodies, but also foodies from across the world.
DW: I started my site because so many people would ask me for recipes of things I make. Whole foods. Real foods. No trans-fats. Less high fructose corn syrup. I didn’t want my recipes to be too out of reach or weird for most people. Despite how healthy I think most people are trying to be, I know that some people still rely on processed convenience foods and fast food restaurants that can be high in bad fats, calories, or sodium.
MN: It was literally a snap decision. I was sitting on my couch, lamenting the fact that I wanted to switch to a cooking as a career but not sure how to leave the software world, with its predictable paycheck and reasonable work hours. You can’t start without a name, so I launched that same night as “The Vegetarian Foodie”, but I hated it. A friend texted me the single word: “Herbivoracious”, and I knew that was it. It captures both the idea of being vegetarian, and my insatiable, voracious appetite for everything related to food.
CC: I started my site by taking a free class at my local library that taught the basics of using Blogger. I had left my job behind and I was looking for a creative outlet. I had worked in the non-profit sector and in working 50-60 hours a week I had lost my creative spark. Blogging was a way to get it back.
AM: I started my blog eight years ago to document my Thanksgiving plans. Since then it’s morphed into a healthy lifestyle and food blog.
How did you choose the name for your blog?
CM: I sat for 6 hours with a friend trying to think of names that made you just get it from the title. After trying 50 plus names my best friend called me and said “aren’t kids just wee ones.” Weelicious was available so I got it!
JM: Nourishment calls to mind a sort of fuller and rounder expression of health than other keywords. I also knew “Nourished Kitchen” is short enough to be memorable.
KO: Before my site was called The Type A Housewife. It was a joke, but no one understood that. The name had nothing to do with vegetarian cooking – it was confusing. Other writers told me that changing the name was the worst thing I could do, but I did it anyway and my site has only grown since. I brainstormed and came up with several different names and asked around to see what people thought of them. Definitely get feedback on your domain name before you commit to anything!
SZ: I always joke that I’m a professional student. I’m finishing up my 4th year of graduate school now, but even if I don’t have any more formal education after my Ph.D., I don’t think learning ever stops. I learn something new every day!
What are the usual tasks you do?
DR: I spent 2-3 hours on my site on good days. Ideally would be happy to spend a couple more, but home, kids etc all demand their share of time. My usual tasks are the birth of a food idea, making it with substitutions which are almost always the norm, photographs along the way, recipe notes, then a draft in place as my thoughts are fresh at the time. Then it is scheduled for posting and I return to ‘pretty up the post’ a day before posting date.
LP: I spend 20-25 hours a week working. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m blogging on my site during those hours. I am running a business and my site is the platform. I am very active in social media and devote a chunk of my day to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. I spend time working with advertisers, brands and PR agencies trying to find products that my readership would enjoy learning about.
DO: I started out as part time. I was having to work full time because my husband was injured at work so I would work on the content while cooking dinner and then after the kids went to bed I would work in the evenings. Now I am fortunate to be able to stay home and work full time on these two sites.
PL: We spend 5-10 hours on the site every week. The most time goes into creating and testing recipes. There is the time spent setting up and photographing the food. It’s as much about timing as anything. We depend almost entirely on natural light, so have to make sure to leave enough daylight time to get a good shot of the finished product. Then it’s all about sitting down, choosing photos and writing the post. It’s quite possibly the part I enjoy most – as it’s the mechanism by which we connect with our readers.
DW: I only post about things that we actually eat, so it is time that I would spend cooking anyway. Some posts just flow out and I’m done in a matter of minutes. Some take much more time and effort. I do a little processing on the picture, like sharpen it or brighten the colors. I write out the post in Word first so that I have a backup of the recipe as well as my thoughts about it. Then, I copy it into my site, and add in the links: links to Amazon, other sites or for recipe links. Then, it’s off to share it on social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Punk Domestics, etc.
MN: I’ve never kept track, but I’d say I spend at least 10 hours a week on it. There are a lot of tasks – developing recipes, photographing them and processing the photos, writing up the recipe steps and headnotes, submitting my posts to sites like Tastespotting and Foodgawker, hanging out on Twitter and Facebook, maintaining the site itself and so on.
CC: I plan photo shoots around crafts and recipes which can take a few hours. I photograph my daily life and travels. I post around two times a week, and usually spend about an hour per post editing pictures and writing content. I don’t have to spend time on the back-end of my site thanks to my web designer. It was so time consuming and frustrating to try and figure it all out myself. It was a small investment but well worth it.
AM: I have a terrific team, so I spend very little time doing anything more technical than adding ad code in my sidebars. I spend most of my time cooking, writing, photographing, posting, promoting my content and being active in various online communities that fit my niche (mom bloggers, foodies, healthy folks, etc.) Blogging is a full time job for me, but that also includes social media consulting work I do with agencies and brands outside of my blog.
SN: It is my full-time, 9-to-5 job. That sounds pretty basic, but I do way more than just cranking out content. In addition to writing, I brainstorm with the rest of the editorial team during meetings, do tons of research, edit photos, hunt down recipes for roundups, test out workouts from trainers, and help work on larger editorial projects.
Which qualities make you a good blogger?
CM: I’m a homebody at heart, so that helps because you’re definitely in front of your computer a lot. I also love the social interaction with readers and fellow bloggers. Thank goodness I’m typing, though, because as much as I like to write my throat would really hurt if I was talking that much.
JM: I was able to delve into my niche early, and was one of the first few blogs covering the topic when I started in 2007 so that helps. I also research my subjects impeccably and seek to provide real, workable solutions for my readers.
KO: I think being determined and focused are two qualities necessary for all bloggers, no matter what genre you’re writing in. When I want to accomplish something, I let nothing stand in my way. I’ve been this way with everything I do, but it’s especially served me well in the competitive world of blogging.
SZ: I think that a lot of people can relate to me. I’m just a normal, busy woman, trying to balance all of my responsibilities with having a life and staying healthy. I think it’s really important to have something in common with your readers and target audience. A lot of people can relate with my struggles.
What is the lesson you’d like to share with people starting out?
DR: Be original and find your niche. Take inspiration yet build your own style, and do add photographs. Nothing holds the reader more captivated. Good pictures must connect to well written prose. Please respect copyright. There is no room in the world for plagiarism.
LP: Set boundaries and stick to them. If you have 2 hours to write a post devote those two hours to writing and be careful not to get sucked into social media. I’m going to have to reread this one myself. I’m still not very good at setting boundaries and sticking to them! Work in progress.
DO: It is very rewarding, it has taught me that I have a lot more to offer people and has become a therapy. Don’t do it for the money. Start out doing something you are passionate about and love because that passion will come out in your writing. Be patient, it doesn’t happen over night. There are so many people that need what we as bloggers have to offer. There are people who need this connection and many friendships have been made.
PL: Write about something for which you have a deep-rooted passion, and recognize that it’s something that takes work to maintain. We didn’t anticipate experiencing periods during which we didn’t feel like cooking anything, or the writing just didn’t come easily. Have a back-up plan – maybe a cache of recipes or posts that you can use when you get busy, go on vacation, or aren’t feeling particularly inspired.
DW: Do what makes you happy. Write about things that interest you. If you’re just doing what “sells” it isn’t you, and people can tell. Writing about healthy food isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it works for me, and it makes me happy. I see other bloggers struggle with the concept of keeping the followers happy. They talk about how they lost followers because of something they said or something they did. But, you can’t make everyone happy, and above all else, it’s really important to be true to what you love.
MN: That is a big topic! A few things that I think are really important when starting out:
- Choose your platform wisely; moving is a non-trivial exercise! I’ve moved to self-hosted WordPress now and I’m super happy with it. But whatever you choose, realize it has a big impact on what will be easy or hard to do.
- Be patient. Those first few months are hard, when you are lucky if you can get your brother-in-law to read and comment. You have to be in it for the long haul, be consistent about posting, and don’t be in a rush to monetize. The money you can make with 300 or even 1k page views per day isn’t going to buy you much more than a few cappucinos a month anyhow, so don’t even bother until you’ve got an audience.
- Focus on quality. There are lots of things you can do to bring people to your site once. But if you want them to keep coming back, they have to think that they will find something wonderful and relevant to them whenever they visit.
AM: Sit down and figure out if your blog is a business venture or a hobby. Once you’ve figured that out, everything else from goals to what email address you’ll use will fall into place.
CM: Find your passion and niche and stick with it. Keep your interest narrow at first and build an audience. After that you can venture out and those who love reading your blog will follow as you branch out.
JM: Make your work meaningful. Before you write about random things in your life, focus on how it might sincerely help and support someone else. Take the time to write well and grow your audience before jumping ahead of yourself to monetization strategies.
What is your best advice on how to grow traffic?
DR: Once you’ve established your niche, find ways to improve the content. Listen to your readers and build that most important relationship. Read other related sites, blogs, magazines, look at trends, or set a trend. Innovate and post regularly.
LP: When I first began blogging a well-respected blogger gave me some good advice which has stuck with me: “write from your heart”. When I’m writing I always think about what I like to read or what catches my attention and try to apply that to the piece that I’m working on. Also, form community. Visit other websites, comment, compliment and be sincere. Add your powerful and important voice to the discussion.
DO: Constantly feed it. Use Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. Everyone loves a giveaway and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Be real and answer questions from the visitors and they will become loyal followers. Be kind, honest and don’t allow any negativity on your site.
PL: Think hard about what you can bring to your site and then put everything into making it happen. Blogging doesn’t work if it doesn’t contain a piece of you. Readers want to know there’s a human being at the other end. Engage your readers on Facebook and Twitter. Join a Triberr tribe or create a Pinterest page. Keep in mind that being an active part of a food blogger community is always key when you’re looking to expand your influence.
DW: When I first started blogging I would post and no one would see it. I got some traffic from search engines, but I didn’t really understand what being involved in the community would do for me. Play around on Facebook and get to know other bloggers; they’ll be the ones who help you grow your site the most. Go to linky parties. Submit to websites like FoodGawker. Make comments on other people’s pages. Link to others bloggers. Share.
MN: Time, patience and quality are the biggest factors, as is developing your unique voice. That is what will bring people back to you. You need to learn about SEO, but don’t spend too much time chasing it. Build relationships. Through social media and commenting on people’s sites. Try to find ways to get out and physically meet other bloggers and readers. That will lead to deeper and more gratifying relationships, and maybe even opportunities like speaking engagements.
CC: Write about what excited you, and what is authentic. Don’t try to be someone else. People will appreciate your honesty and come back for more. Building my site has been a ton of work. Some sites are overnight hits, with tons of commenters and readers, mine is not one of those. I have built it through hard work, time and effort. I am constantly striving to make it better and more original. Here are a few ways that I have managed to get the word out about my site:
- Link – you should always include your link in your email signature
- Comment – the more you comment on others sites, the better your chance that someone will like your comment and click over to your page. Think of links to your content as breadcrumbs. You want to create a trail of breadcrumbs all across the internet, so that people from all over will find their way to your contnet.
- Flickr – If you take good pictures, join Flickr, once there, link your pictures back to the post where you posted them, join groups, get your pictures out into the Flickr world. Again, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. And finally, keep at it….building an audience takes time.
AM: Spend time creating great content and knowing SEO, of course. Then find time to promote content on social media sites like Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook by being active in those communities as a helpful person, not a promoter. If people like you and what you’re saying, they’ll come to your blog for more.
SN: Stay in touch with your readers. Keep your finger on the pulse of what they want to see more of and what they love/hate/need/want. It’s always good to read opinions other than your own! Have your own message and don’t be swayed by what’s trendy or popular at the moment. These two pieces of advice seem to be in opposition, and that’s pretty much correct. Maintaining a successful site is all about balancing between writing what you are passionate about and making content that’s interesting and accessible to all kinds of people.
KO: Trust your gut. Most of the missteps I’ve made were because I went against my instincts; you’ll find that as a writer, you’ll get a lot of well-meaning advice from your fellow writers, but ultimately you need to decide what’s right for you. Never publish something on your site that you wouldn’t read yourself. You need to be willing to look at your site with a critical eye. You need to offer your readers something unique and compelling that will make them want to come back again and again.
SZ: Be true to yourself. There are so many blogs and bloggers out there and it’s easy to try to imitate someone’s style. Really listen to your gut and do what feels right to you. That’s how you will get the most out of your blog and so will others!
What are best and most challenging aspects of your lifestyle?
CM: The most challenging part is keeping up with everything. When I started there was really only my site and the comments. Now with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and more there’s just a lot more ground to cover in a day. The best part is meeting incredible people (mostly women) who I’ve met over the internet. Some I’ve gotten to meet and become true friends with which has been a gift.
JM: It’s a struggle for me to manage the needs of readers. Blogging is my full time job and it supports my family, but it’s a constant struggle to write the posts, prepare the premium content that supports my family, answer emails, manage social media outlets, forge friendships with other bloggers and still maintain a semblance of a personal life.
KO: I love being my own boss. The flexibility of working from home has completely spoiled me too – if I’m sick, I take the day off. If I want to go on vacation, I schedule posts ahead of time. When I worked as a librarian, I used to spend the entire weekend dreading Monday morning; now I can’t wait to dive in. The biggest downside is that it can be difficult to find that all-important work / life balance. This is something I’m working on – I’d like to get to the point where I can turn off the computer at 5pm and be done for the day.
SZ: It has definitely been the community of readers and other bloggers that I’ve met through my blog. It’s funny how quickly you can begin to “know” someone through their blog. The most challenging aspect of blogging for me is achieving a balance. Blogging and the social media that comes with it can be very time- and energy-consuming. Not everything needs to be documented for my blog or posted on Twitter. It’s refreshing to take a step back (or a weekend off) and just unplug for a bit.
What is your biggest success?
DR: My proudest moment was when my site began to get noticed and got it’s very first blogging award from Abby – ‘Best Kept Secret’! I was elated!
LP: The incredible connections I’ve made through blogging. From brands to bloggers, there is such an amazing group of men and women out there filled with humor, intelligence and passion.
DO: All the wonderful friendships that I have built. Wonderful people all over the world. I would have never had a chance to talk to these people without the site. My site has connected me with families that have and are in need of the same thing as I was. The fact that I am able to stay home with my children and still work from home has been priceless as well as the confidence I now have in myself because of something I created.
PL: We’ve made an amazing number of connections and been able to share our expertise with others through presentations at area festivals and libraries. We’ve found our place in a community of individuals who really care about great food, local eating, and sustainable living. One of the best things that came from blogging is a wealth of freelancing opportunities.
DW: It’s how much I’ve learned about photography. I love taking pictures. I look back on my early pictures and I can see right away how much better they are now. I still learn all the time. I read other posts and watch tutorials. It takes a lot of time. It takes commitment. But, it’s worth it to share your passion, your art. And, yes, I consider food to be my art. Whatever your passion, go for it.
MN: Well, I guess my biggest achievement is being asked to write a book. That would have never happened without the site, and it actually got me over the hump to quitting my day job.
CC: My site has been instrumental in building my career as a writer and photographer. It has helped me find my voice, and pushed me to take better pictures. I believe that my first book deal came about because of the confidence I found through blogging – so I count that as a big success.
AM: My biggest success was being hired to write a blog. When the call went out to the mom blogging community about the gig, many of us realized that blogging had become way of making a living and was no longer just a hobby.
SN: I always love hearing back from readers who loved (or even who didn’t love) my articles via comments or twitter. Knowing that something I wrote can help somebody make a healthier choice is always a huge plus, too.
CM: In the first year a mother wrote to tell me that her family hated the food she cooked and never said anything positive. The first time she made my recipe for dinner her husband leaned over and told her “dinner is delicious tonight” and she cried. I realized how powerful food can be and how thankless a job it is for moms.
JM: I loved it when I was featured on CNN, but my fondest memory is meeting a reader at a festival where I was speaking and conducting a demo on fermented foods. She came up to me and told me personally how important the content was to her and to her family and beautiful baby girl, and that meant a lot. Sometimes you feel like you’re a voice in the dark, and it’s nice to know your work means something to someone.
KO: My first press trip! I was terrified. I had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being a fantastic time. And I think that was one of the points where I realized just how influential bloggers can be and how many opportunities are out there for us.
SZ: My favorite blogging memories all involve meeting and hanging out with fellow bloggers in person! I feel so lucky to have made some awesome friends through my blog and getting to meet them in real life and instantly connect is very cool. It’s great finding other people out there with similar interests!
What is your biggest mistake or the biggest mistake to avoid?
DR: Not sure if I made any big ones as I am always careful of etiquette etc. Personally I regret that I do not always have time to visit or reply to each reader that takes the time to leave a comment on my page. I do hope I can manage that better soon.
LP: The list of mistakes is long. As I tell my kids, it’s how we learn. The biggest mistake I have made is letting blogging take away from family time. Sometimes when I am kissing my kids goodnight I’m also thinking about that long list of “to-dos” waiting for me. I let it get in the way of time with my kids and that’s not OK in my book. Everything else can wait.
DO: Not being consistent. People want results and money overnight and it doesn’t happen like that. It takes time to build a following, but when you do they will help you and share your content with others. Giving up too early on your site before it has had a chance to shine is a common mistake. There are going to be hard times, slow times, etc. but you charge through it and keep going.
PL: Don’t accept too many freebies. Taking every sample that someone offers you feels like a great idea. But, you often end up in a situation where your page looks more like an advertisement for products than a great place to go read about food. I don’t love pages that do too many product promotions, as I don’t find that they seem very genuine. It’s actually quite a bit of a turn-off. We have a pretty strict policy about what types of products we will write about. They have to be a good fit for the site, or we won’t take them.
DW: Don’t try to take someone else’s material and use it as your own. Give credit where credit is due. When people come along and crop my photos so that my watermark is no longer there, or they copy my recipe and photo without giving me any credit, it’s not cool. It’s stealing. Bloggers work really hard and they don’t make much money, so it hurts even more when people aren’t nice.
MN: I don’t really have too many regrets. In my very early days I wrote some pretty bad posts and took some pretty bad pictures, and I’ve left them all up there in the archive for hilarity purposes. Beyond that, blogging has been a whole lot of fun!
CC: As far as mistakes, I’m not sure I’ve made any mistakes. I certainly look back and cringe at my early posts, the pictures are terrible, and I had yet to develop a writing style. But it was all a part of the learning process. I guess my only real mistake, and this is something I work on still, is being envious of other bloggers that might have more readers, better pictures, or more achievements. I am learning to be proud of all that I have done, and stop the comparisons.
AM: My biggest mistake was not switching over to a self-hosted WordPress blog sooner! Once I did that, my traffic and opportunities grew.
Inspired to start your own food blog? See my step-by-step instructions here.
The post 13 Food Bloggers Share Their Best Advice For Newbies appeared first on How To Make My Blog.
13 Food Bloggers Share Their Best Advice For Newbies
What We Learned This Week
This week we learned about the newest ways Apple will take our money, why some people definitely should not own guns and why baseball games are a bit dangerous.
What We Learned This Week
User Experience and Persuasion
User Experience and Persuasion Roundtable
Note: This event is exclusive to Econsultancy Enterprise subscribers.
The User Experience and Persuasion Roundtable is your chance to share knowledge, experience and best practice on the issues, trends and developments around User Experience and Persuasion.
Attendance is limited to 12 - 16 attendees, with discussion chaired and facilitated by Econsultancy to ensure all participants get the most from the session.
Agenda
The agenda for the day is very much driven by those attending - your priority areas and pain points.
Potential topics on User Experience and Persuasion will be added to the website shortly.
User Experience and Persuasion
Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review
Push does come to shove — and improves sales — if internet retailers are right. Nine out of the 10 top e-retailers in the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 make use of push notifications to market content to consumers.
SMS spammers are every bit as irritating as they are plentiful. And Jared Reitzin, the CEO of mobileStorm, is fed up with it.
If you’ve already written off Microsoft in the smartphone wars, it may be time to write them back in. The updated Enterprise Smartphone Competitive Assessment from ABI Research concludes that, overall, Apple is number one followed closely by Samsung.
A new study is confirming that which many mobile marketers already know — moms are excellent, receptive targets for relevant mobile marketing messages. The findings published this week from the 2014 BabyCenter US Mobile Mom Report show that moms are dependent like never before on their mobile devices for communication, research, and shopping.
Consumers now leapfrog from one device to another throughout a typical day. From a home laptop to a smartphone on the train to a tablet later on — yes, it has been a challenge for marketers trying to figure out how to track them across all platforms.
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Mobile Marketing: The Week in Review
Broadcom announces next generation Cisco Security Certification for 4 HEVC Ultra HD SoCs
Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) has announced that it has received Cisco security certification on four of its set-top box HEVC 4K/Ultra HD SoCs. Broadcom is the first chip maker to achieve the latest generation Cisco VideoGuard security certification for pay TV.
Broadcom announces next generation Cisco Security Certification for 4 HEVC Ultra HD SoCs
Swisscom selects Verimatrix security for TV 2.0 multiscreen offering
Verimatrix has announced that Swisscom has selected the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) to provide revenue security for its Swisscom TV 2.0 service, which offers live and seven-day replay services via an Android-powered set-top box. 
Swisscom selects Verimatrix security for TV 2.0 multiscreen offering
The Most Popular Dog Breeds Are The Ones We See In Movies
Popular canine films such as "Beethoven," "101 Dalmatians" and "Lassie Come Home" have influenced the popularity of dog breeds for up to ten years, research suggests.
The Most Popular Dog Breeds Are The Ones We See In Movies
The British Media Has Been Totally Freaking Out Over Scottish Independence
The British media doesn't usually agree on much. But it seems to be in lock-step agreement on the issue of Scottish independence — it's a bad idea.
As Scotland nears a referendum vote on Sept. 18 that it will determine whether it remains part of the United Kingdom, the British press has built itself into a frenzy
A "yes" vote would mean that Scotland leaves the United Kingdom and becomes an independent country. A "no" vote would mean it remains in the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron has pleaded with Scotland in an effort to keep the kindgom intact. "I would be heartbroken if this family of nations that we put together and have done such amazing things together was torn apart," he recently said. Read more...
More about Media, Scotland, Business, World, and Scottish Independence
The British Media Has Been Totally Freaking Out Over Scottish Independence
How to Develop Rapport With Influencers via Social Media
The influencers in your niche are probably receiving hundreds of friendly requests a day. The trick behind successful outreach is to stand out and catch the intended party's attention--and maintain it. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
How to Develop Rapport With Influencers via Social Media
What Facebook's Evolving Social Graph Means for Content Marketers
As Facebook's concept of the social graph evolves, it presents new opportunities for content marketing on Facebook. Here's a look at some of those opportunities.
Read the full article at MarketingProfs
What Facebook's Evolving Social Graph Means for Content Marketers
What We Learned This Week
This week we learned about the newest ways Apple will take our money, why some people definitely should not own guns and why baseball games are a bit dangerous.
What We Learned This Week
7 Popular Travel Bloggers Share Their Best Blogging Tips
The people behind seven popular travel blogs share their personal insights and best blogging tips in this post. Their stories and experiences showcase the path you can follow in order to become a great blogger. I hope their words inspire you. The post is long and full of practical advice so let’s get started. First a quick introduction to our guests:
- Earl Baron (EB): Wandering Earl is a permanent nomad and an experienced traveler.
- Matthew Kepnes (MK): Matt explores the world and collects his traveling experiences at Nomadic Matt.
- Dalene & Peter Heck (DH): Hecktic Travels have left everything behind to live with no possessions, no plans and just travel.
- Andrea Spirov (AS): A travel lover with the ambitious goal of inspiring you to take a trip through Inspiring Travellers.
- Cameron & Nicole Wears (CW): Traveling Canucks have been to over 50 countries on 6 continents.
- Christy Woodrow & Scott Calafiore (SC): Two entrepreneurs who run Ordinary Traveler.
- Mary Gabbett & Bret Love (BL): Co-founders of Green Global Travel, dedicated to ecotourism.
How and why did you start your blog?
EB: I wanted to know if the experiences I was having during my travels would be of interest to anyone else. And so I figured that a blog would be the best platform for me to test that idea out.
MK: I started my site as a way to create an online resume for writing. I wanted to write guidebooks for Lonely Planet and figured if I had a website with posts as well as some writing on other websites then it would have been easier for me to do so.
DH: When we first started our travels, we fired up a Blogspot page to keep our family and friends informed on our whereabouts and activities. We stumbled upon the vast community of travel writers online and realized that we could perhaps take our site to the next level and even make some income off of it. We then bought our own domain, focused more heavily on providing quality content, and began to engage in social media.
AS: When my husband and I decided to take a year off for a sabbatical I thought it might be nice to start blogging about our experiences. Originally I wanted to interview other travelers, in particular those that we would meet in hostels who were doing really interesting things while on the road. But eventually we also decided to write about our own experiences and the site just evolved from there.
CW: We started our travel site before embarking on an around the world adventure. Originally the page was designed to update family and friends and to share our travel stories. As our travels continued, we found that our readership was growing. People were actually interested in our adventures, stories and photos. This inspired us to take our travel blogging seriously and write for a much wider audience.
SC: We wanted to share our stories with family and friends while we were away. It also seemed like a great way to keep track of our photos since photography is a huge part of not only our personal lives, but our professional lives as well.
BL: We’re insatiably curious about traveling to new places, meeting new people, seeking out new experiences and new ideas, and love sharing those things with other people in a way that will hopefully inform and inspire them to travel.
How much time do you spend working on your site?
EB: These days, I spend about 30 hours per week working on my blog and that involves writing posts, adding new pages, promoting the blog on social media platforms and general maintenance of the site.
MK: I spend all of waking time blogging if I am not doing anything else. After years of blogging, my site is a full time business and like any business it takes up most of my time. I have people working for me now – I have a part time assistant, PR agent, and designer. I spend my days writing posts, networking with other authors, writing articles for other websites, answering email, and overseeing a few other websites. It’s very time consuming.
DH: Between the two of us, we spend about 40 to 50 hours a week total. We each have our responsibilities: I do the writing, keep up on Twitter and Facebook, as well as handling all our ‘business’. Pete does most of the photography, all photo editing and handles StumbleUpon and Pinterest. We have outsourced our technical support as neither of us are WordPress gurus.
AS: On average I spend at least 40 hours a week on the site – it’s a full-time job. Researching and writing takes up the vast majority of my time with social media at a close second. Other tasks include responding to queries via email, including advertisers, advertisement maintenance (renewals, billing, updates, etc.). I also correspond with contributors and deal with the technical aspects of the website.
CW: About 25 hours per week. I spend time editing and tagging photos, which is very tedious and time consuming. Tasks include responding to comments, answering emails, and sharing our articles through social media. I also spend a lot of time sharing other travel bloggers’ work. Every day I leave about 10 comments on travel sites and I promote articles from travel bloggers through social media – what goes around comes around!
SC: I would say at least 15-20 hours a week on the actual site, but starting out we probably spent more like 30-40 hours a week getting things set up. The most time consuming tasks are writing, editing photos and uploading them to our site. These are daily tasks, otherwise we can easily get behind on our posting schedule. Lately we have spent a good deal of time optimizing old posts to rank better in search results and staying on top of social media.
BL: Between the two of us, I’d say we average well over 40 hours a week, usually working on it at least 4-5 hours a day. Tasks include writing, assigning and editing stories; editing photos and video; reaching out to potential advertisers and PR representatives; managing our team of interns; doing copious social media tasks; strategizing ideas for business growth; and then of course there’s the actual travel itself. We stay very, very busy!
What is the best lesson you have learned?
EB: Growing an engaged audience takes time, but in the end, as long as you stay focused and are willing to constantly learn, you will succeed. Those who don’t achieve their goals are generally those who eventually give up because they haven’t seen the results they were hoping for. Stick with it, push through the tough times and suddenly, one day, progress will be made and all of your efforts will have paid off.
MK: Learn website code. You don’t need to be a master at building websites or anything like that but being able to understand how your website works and how everything under the hood fits together will make your life a lot easier when there is a small problem that needs to be fixed, when you want to change a font color, or when you want to expand your website. Knowing how your website functions will make your life a lot easier.
DH: Be yourself. At the beginning we struggled a bit with what kind of website we were and what we wanted to write. A few months in we found our groove and our voice and have stuck with it. There’s no point trying to ‘force’ a certain kind of style onto yourself, it will show in the writing and will more easily wear you down. Do what you love and the rewards will come.
AS: Start networking and spend a lot of time on it. We regularly guest post and give interviews. We belong to a variety of online groups and forums for meeting other bloggers. You also need to be creative to think of new ways to promote yourself, with cross-promotion in other niches being a very important way to expand your reach. And don’t underestimate search, which can bring you significant amounts of traffic if you pay attention to SEO best practices.
CW: Don’t underestimate the time commitment that is required. Pay attention to the details. Don’t add too much sizzle that will slow down your site and frustrate your readers. Be clear with your message. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your site design. Stick with it! There will be weeks where it feels like nobody cares about your site. Stay the course. It takes time. Be patient.
SC: Running a successful site is not a cake walk, but if you are aware of this, hopefully you won’t get discouraged as easily. There will be plenty of times where you will consider giving up. The web is full of all different types of people. Some people will lift you up and others will try to tear you down. Do your best not to let the haters get to you. Learning how to separate constructive criticism from negativity is extremely important.
BL: The sooner you treat your site like a business, the faster it will grow. If I’d known how quickly we could grow this business by giving it everything we had, I’d have done it right from the get-go! Also? Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t do it.
What is your best advice on how to attract readers?
EB: Create high-quality content. No matter how well you do with SEO, no matter how attractive your website or how catchy the titles of your posts, or even how visible you are on Twitter and Facebook, it means nothing if you don’t create content that is useful to your readers.
MK: Market outside your niche. Find similar topics and guest post on those websites. You can always market in your own niche but finding success outside your niche will lead to the greatest audience growth. I always post on lifehacking and finance sites because their audiences and missions align well with my budget travel tips. There is a lot of overlap.
DH: Do lots of guest posts. And I mean, LOTS, especially at the start. Right now we try to keep it to one guest post a month to control our workload, but we did many more in the beginning to reach a wider audience. Also, and this should go without saying, focus on producing high quality content. You want readers to come back and to also tell their friends about it.
AS: Building consistent, quality content is the best way to develop a successful site. Networking and promotion on social media is also very important, but if you don’t have great content, no one will care. Find your voice and don’t try to copy what others have done – you are what will engage readers and keep them coming back. People tend to follow personalities that they can relate to.
CW: Dedicate more time to social media. You can have the best content on the planet, but if nobody knows about it then you’re not going to get the recognition you deserve. Be everywhere. Join networking groups and connect with other bloggers. Leave comments and share their posts. Engage with your readers and followers. Respond to comments and emails. Be helpful and give before taking. Your time will come, but you have to earn it first.
SC: Network. Relationships are key. Start out by helping other bloggers and most of them will be happy to return the favor by sharing your articles, commenting or offering guest posts on their site. Guest posts are a great way to get your content in front of a different audience. It’s also important to stick with it, even through the tough times. Keep putting out great content while sharing it through all of your social media channels and eventually the readers will come.
BL: The brief version is to blaze your own trail, focus on killer content, set concrete (and attainable) business goals, work social media like a beast, treat others the way you want to be treated, and try not to focus too much on stats or monetization, especially for the first year. It takes a lot of time, patience, energy and talent to build a successful site.
What has been your biggest success?
EB: My biggest success has been creating a travel blog that has become my main business, one that can support my current lifestyle of constant world travel.
MK: My biggest success as a blogger came when I got a book deal from Penguin Books to turn my ebook into a print edition book.
DH: The success we are most proud of is building the great fan base we have. We love the interaction we see on our Facebook page and the great comments and emails we get every day. That is the number one thing that keeps us going!
AS: Our biggest success has been the steady increase in traffic over the last two years. We also meet a lot of fascinating people through our site and I consider that to be as much of a success as any numbers or advertising revenue that we generate.
CW: You always want more page views, followers and advertising dollars – it’s never enough! We love to travel, so a big success for us has been attending press trips to fantastic destinations. We’ll always remember the first time we were offered an “all expenses paid trip” to the Dominican Republic in exchange for some posts and social media loving. We had one of those “we finally made it” moments.
SC: I would say that our biggest success is the relationships that we have formed with other bloggers. This may not be a success to some people, but for us it is extremely empowering to meet other people who have the same passion and drive as we do. I won’t lie though, seeing our monthly reader numbers grow gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling and makes me feel successful as well.
BL: Our biggest success has been in getting big-name companies to approach us before we really even knew what we were doing as afar as running a site. Several companies approached us about working together back when we were barely getting 10,000 page views a month. Working with such high-caliber companies DEFINITELY elevated our profile considerably.
What has been your biggest mistake?
EB: Not starting a blog earlier in my travels. I’ve been traveling for 12 years but have only had the the blog for 2 years… it would have been excellent to have been writing and interacting with the community from the beginning!
MK: I think it was failing to recognize how important design is to a website. I had a bad design in the beginning. Moreover, I also didn’t make it easy for people to be able to sign up for my website. I think that lost me a lot of readers and now I can’t help but stress the importance of design to people.
DH: Our biggest mistake was to not start sooner! When we first started traveling, we wish we had known that there was this big, crazy, travel blogging world out there, and to make a real ‘go’ of our travel site right from the start.
AS: The biggest mistake has been not having a more well-defined niche as I think those sites that have one tend to have a lot more success than general interest sites in a genre.
CW: We focused on quantity not quality – big mistake. If you want people to share your story, make it memorable and provide value. I’m embarrassed by some posts that were published years ago. The writing was sloppy and disorganized. But that’s just a part of the creative process. Another mistake was ignoring the importance of SEO tactics. If you want to increase traffic and readership, search engines need to find your work.
SC: Our biggest mistake has probably been not starting sooner. I know, that’s a stupid thing to say because it’s never too late to start. This is a tough question though. It is really hard for me to think about life and business in terms of mistakes. I like to look at things as a learning experience rather than a mistake, otherwise I might drive myself mad.
BL: In our first year we weren’t focused, had no clue what we were doing on social media, and weren’t even on WordPress. In some ways, our relaunch when we moved to WordPress was like starting all over again.
Loved the advice? Inspired to start you own blog? Check out my start guide here.
The post 7 Popular Travel Bloggers Share Their Best Blogging Tips appeared first on How To Make My Blog.
7 Popular Travel Bloggers Share Their Best Blogging Tips
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